Höcker - West Wall Dragon's teeth 1:56 scale (28mm)

The Siegfried Line

The Siegfried Line was a series of fortifications on the western border of Germany, stretching more than 390 miles from Kleve, near the Dutch border, all the way to Weil am Rhein near the border of Switzerland. Called the Westwall by the Germans, it was built between 1938 and 1940 and is made of more than 18,000 pillboxes and tank traps.

Tank traps were also built for many miles along the Siegfried Line. These consisted of truncated pyramids of reinforced concrete standing in rows on a single concrete foundation, each one three to four feet tall. These foundations extended several meters below ground level to discourage attempts at tunneling. Commonly called "dragon's teeth" they were designed to slow down and funnel tanks into kill-zones where they could be picked off by anti-tank weapons. Mines and barbed wire were placed in the spaces between the individual teeth.